Torremolinos Spain

The town of Torremolinos is located in the Spanish region of Andalucia on the Costa del Sol. This is southern Spain's Benidorm equivalent it's big, brash and lots of fun. Don't come here for a cultural experience or to discover the "real Spain"! Life in Torremolinos in high season is noisy, fast paced (very gay in parts) and the partying keeps going till dawn.

With nine kilometres of wide, sandy beaches, masses of watersports, an extensive range of bars, shops and restaurants and a throbbing nightlife, the resort attracts people of all ages. Visitors from all over Europe flock here in the summer months for bucket and spade family holidays, gay holidays and teen scene fun.

The town is dominated by high rise hotels and apartment blocks but the local authorities have taken pains to provide thoughtfully landscaped areas within the concrete jungle. More than a thousand species of trees, shrubs and flowers have been planted around the town in public gardens which provide a welcome reprieve from the surrounding bustle of bar and beach life.

It's hard to believe this was once a sleepy fishing village back in the 1960s before mass tourism knocked on the door of Torremolinos and transformed it into one of the biggest resorts on the Costa del Sol.

Look hard and you'll still find traces of a by gone age when life was slower (and karaoke hadn't even been invented!). In the middle of the main shopping centre there you'll find some of the town's original fresh fish bars, still holding their own amid pizza joints, designer boutiques and souvenir shops.

In the old part of the town, near the town hall and Casa de Cultura, the narrow cobbled streets, balconies bedecked with geraniums and tiny tapas bars give a flavour of Spanish life as it's still lived in thousands of inland Andalucian pueblos.

The tapas bars are the places to go for delicious fresh snacks spicy prawns, mussels, calamares, local "chorizo" sausage at ridiculously cheap prices.

But if you're not into going native, the tastes of foreign visitors are well catered for in hundreds of international bars and restaurants English, German, Dutch, Chinese Italian.

Torremolinos has an excellent range of shops and besides good quality clothes, cheap leather goods, jewellery, crafts and gifts shops you'll find international supermarkets stocked with all your "must haves" from home.

Calle San Miguel is at the heart of the shopping centre an attractive pedestrianised street flanked by small shops and cafes. Even if you don't want to buy anything this is a great place to sip a sangria in one of the street cafes and simply people watch.

To the west of the town centre is the original fishermen's district of La Carihuela where you'll find some top class seafood restaurant and a modern seafront promenade which stretches all the way to the neighbouring resort of Benalmádena.

As for entertainment.well, you pay your money and you take your choice! It's all here in Torremolinos beach sports, water sports, golf, tennis, a thriving gay scene and a nightlife which includes everything from top class clubs and restaurants to raunchy late night cabarets and all night clubs.